Aircraft are fitted with a variety of external lights such as landing lights, anti-collision strobes and beacons and position lights. Aircraft position lights (APLs), also known as navigation lights, by color and placement on the aircraft identify its position, heading and status. The location, color and intensity of the APLs is governed by national standards, e.g., as administered in the United States by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), and international standard, e.g., as administered by the International Standards Organization (ISO).
A commonly used APL is a halogen incandescent bulb fitted with a pg22 two post connector allowing it to be secured to a corresponding socket. The halogen APL is easily fitted and as necessary replaced, which because of its incandescent structure is frequently required. As an aircraft cannot operate without functioning APLs, burned out or otherwise inoperative incandescent APLs can lead to flight delays and, in commercial aviation, customer frustration and lost revenue.
Light emitting diodes (LEDs) offer superior operational life as compared to incandescent lamps, and in certain configurations superior light output. LED-based light assemblies, however, require driving circuitry, and depending on the light intensity output, heat dissipation structures, e.g., heat sinks.
Therefore, it is desirable to advantageously use LED-based light assemblies in aircraft lighting applications, such as APLs, owing to the anticipated reduction in aircraft downtime and associated maintenance costs. To permit use on existing aircraft, LED light assemblies should be direct one-for-one retro-fit incandescent light assemblies. This may be accomplished by a LED-based light assembly that is compact in size, including any heat dissipation structures, and uses standardized base structures so that the LED-based light assembly is one-for-one replaceable with existing incandescent bulbs. Other desirable features and characteristics of the herein described embodiments will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.